Top stocks at Nairobi bourse sustain price gains

Share prices of several top 20 stocks at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) sustained upward trend on Thursday, recording marginal gains that attracted foreign inflows though investors have largely withdrawn from the bourse.

Some 31 million shares valued at 7.6 million U.S. dollars were traded, up from 27 million shares that were valued at 7.3 million dollars Wednesday.

Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom topped the stocks with increased foreign demand, recording the highest net inflows to close 3.8 percent higher at 0.18 dollars. The top stock in total moved 21 million shares Thursday, up from 7 million shares.

The banking sector, on the other hand, traded 7.1 million shares with Equity Group Holdings becoming the most heavily traded counter on foreign buys after moving 4.8 million shares at 0.38 dollars, a 1.32 percent higher.

Similarly, the Cooperative Bank of Kenya actively moved 1 million shares at a fairly stable price of 0.16 dollars while Barclays Bank traded 700,000 shares at 0.10 dollars, a high of 0.5 percent.

In the investment sector, a total of 1.3 million shares were moved with Centum rising to 0.44 dollars on a volume of 1.1 million shares.

The manufacturing and allied sector moved 523,000 shares, with East Africa Breweries trading 324,000 shares at a slight drop of 2.8 dollars.

The surge in share prices and trading saw the NSE 20 Share Index go up 11.56 points to settle at 3,640.61 while the All Share Index (NASI) edged 1.28 points higher to settle at 140.60. Similarly, the NSE 25 Share Index was up 12.56 points to stand at 3,955.56.

At the bond market, securities worth 13 million dollars were transacted, up from 9.9 million Wednesday. Endit